Van Kesteren’s appointment marks a trend: top traditional financial services executives making the transition into the blockchain/crypto sector. His move highlights the mounting interest from mainstream finance despite an early dismissal of bitcoin.

Van Kesteren will be responsible for the company’s risk models and product development in addition to general strategic influence as part of the company’s executive team.

While at BOA Merrill Lynch, van Kesteren built the equity structured lending platform, including risk and regulatory compliance frameworks. He brings over 16 years of financial services expertise across traditional and non-traditional prime brokerage as well as a deep knowledge of machine learning and data science. After leaving BOA Merrill Lynch, Rene joined BlockFi in Sept. 2017 to serve as a member of the company’s advisory board.

Commenting on his move to the company full time, Rene explained, “I’ve developed a strong belief in the potential of cryptoassets and am excited to contribute to the growth of the ecosystem at BlockFi. An institutional quality lending infrastructure for crypto is currently missing and we’re going to bridge that gap.”

“Rene’s expertise in securities lending, commodity lending, PE lending and margin lending, from a risk management and regulatory perspective, are incredible assets to add to our team,” said BlockFi’s CEO, Zac Prince. “While serving on our advisory board, Rene developed a thorough understanding of our business and the crypto ecosystem. His contributions to our efforts will be incredibly beneficial as we continue to grow and diversify our products and markets.”

Last updated on April 16th, 2019

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